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incorporated in 1965, is a city located in the northern Antelope Valley in Kern County, 65 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park, in the U.S. state of California. The population was 8,385 at the 2000 census. Estimated population in July 2006 is 12,659.
California City has one prison (the California City Correctional Center, operated by the Corrections Corporation of America), one landowners' resort, one PGA golf course, and one municipal airport. Much of the city's workforce is supported by Edwards Air Force Base, which is located just to the south of the city. Other major sources of employment include California City Prison, Silver Saddle, Mojave Airport and its boneyard plane salvaging operations, the Honda Proving Center to the north, the new Hyundai/Kia Proving Grounds located to its southwest, and nearby cities such as Tehachapi, Ridgecrest, Boron, Palmdale, and Lancaster.
The area where California City now exists was largely uninhabited prior to the last half century. Padre Francisco Garcés, a Franciscan missionary, camped at Castle Butte in what is now California City in 1776 during his exploration of Arizona and southern California. In the late 19th century, the Twenty Mule Team Trail, which carried loads of borax to the railhead in Mojave from mines in the east, ran through the California City area.
California City had its origins in 1958 when real estate developer and sociology professor Nat Mendelsohn purchased of Mojave Desert land with the aim of master-planning California's next great city. He designed his model city, which he hoped would one day rival Los Angeles in size, around a Central Park with a 26 acre artificial lake. Growth did not happen anywhere close to as he expected. To this day a vast grid of crumbling paved roads, scarring vast stretches of the Mojave desert, intended to lay out residential blocks, extends well beyond the developed area of the city. A simple look at Google maps satellite photos shows the extent of the scarred desert and how it stakes its claim to being California's 3rd largest geographic city, 34th largest in the US. California City was incorporated in 1965.
star Erik Estrada has been promoting real estate property for California City in infomercials as spokesperson for National Recreational Properties.